1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cutting device for removing a portion of the metallic foil or plastic material covering the upper portion of a wine bottle neck prior to removal of the cork from the neck of the bottle.
2. Description of the Background
In the wine bottling industry, it is common practice to cover the top and the upper part of the neck of a bottle with a sheath made of metallic foil or plastic material after a cork has been placed in the bottle. It has become customary, particularly when serving wine on "special occasions," in restaurants, at banquets, or whenever a certain degree of elegance and finesse is called for, to remove a small circlet of this material from the top of the bottle neck to provide a clean opening through which the cork can be extracted while leaving the remainder of the sheath in place on the bottle neck to provide what has come to be considered a proper or appealing appearance.
As a practical matter, it is sometimes possible, with the aid of a corkscrew, to extract a cork from such a bottle by pulling the cork through the foil. However, this approach leaves a rough or jagged edge of such material around the opening left by the cork. The jagged edge is considered aesthetically undesirable and may cause the pouring of the wine to become a rather messy operation. It is also possible, particularly where the outer sheath or covering is made of a thin metallic foil, to completely remove this material from the bottle before uncorking. However, this is likewise awkward and time consuming, and as mentioned, it has come to be considered as detracting from the aesthetic appearance of the bottle. In short, the removal of a small circlet of foil from the top of the bottle, while leaving the remainder of the foil in place on the bottle neck, has become a ritual with which every good waiter is expected to comply, and many ordinary consumers seek to emulate in their homes.
In most instances, this task is now performed with an ordinary straight blade knife, which is often built into the waiter's style corkscrew. It takes considerable practice to be able to perform the task quickly and deftly with such a knife, and even for one of considerable skill, it is time consuming, and the knife will sometimes slip.
A number of devices have been devised for severing the sealing material which overlies the caps of bottles of the type used for hard spirits. It would appear that none of these devices has attained widespread use for that purpose, and, based on analyses of the designs of these devices, one can reasonably surmise that, for one reason or another, they simply proved to be more trouble than the worth.
If these devices have been little used for their own intended purpose, they are much less suited for cutting the foil sheath of a wine bottle, due to differences in the forms of wine bottles and hard spirit bottles and closures therefor. For example, hard spirit bottles are typically closed either with a screw-on cap or with a stopper the upper end of which is enlarged to overly the top of the bottle. In either case, a crevice is defined at the lower edge of the cap or stopper top, and this provides easy guidance for a blade or the like. Such is not the case with wine bottles, wherein the cork is disposed entirely within the bottle. The materials which are used to envelop or cover the upper portions of wine bottles also typically differ substantially from those used to cover or seal hard liquor bottles.
Thus, one can appreciate at least some of the factors which make these devices undesirable, even for their own proper purpose, and even more unsuitable for the purpose of the present invention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,589,742 to Smith and U.S. Pat. No. DES 142,202 to Lanyon disclose rigid, integral, double blade knives. These would be difficult to properly position and guide on a wine bottle, as opposed to a liquor bottle, and in any event, are ergonomically awkward in that they require the application of radial force with the entire hand positioned to one side of the bottle neck, in combination with a turning movement of over 180.degree..
U.S. Pat. No. 2,722,736 to Svalgard, No. 2,276,268 to Donlon, No. 2,271,308 to Ross, and No. 2,439,894 to Jahn et al all disclose devices which likewise require well over 180.degree., and in some cases a full 360.degree., of turning motion. Furthermore, each of these devices is spring biased to a configuration designed to tightly engage the bottle neck, so that it must be snapped onto the bottle neck or bottle cap for use.
Other such devices, e.g. those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,388 to Zuba, U.K. Patent No. 15,940 to Chennel, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,823,395 to Brownson, operate on a scissors-like principle either to cut liquor bottle seals or wires. Two of these are freely pivotable, while the other is spring loaded to a closed position like the last mentioned group of devices. Although the blades may be curved, such a device provides only two point cutting contact, except--at most--on one given size bottle. Thus, as a practical matter, they require at least 180.degree. rotary movement. They are also inconvenient in that they must be actively opened for positioning on the bottle.
One prior patent, French Patent No. 1.097.917, purports to disclose a device specifically designed for cutting the foil wrappers of wine bottles. However, this device suffers from some of the same disadvantages of the liquor bottle knives discussed above. Both disclosed embodiments are unsuitable from an ergonomic standpoint; they require the application of force with the hand in an uncomfortable or unnatural position, along with more than 180.degree. rotary motion.
Still other cutting devices are known, for even less analogous purposes, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,681,504, for stripping and cutting flower stems, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,036,611 for cutting shelled eggs. These devices have opposite blades, which are non-aligned, so that, as they are urged toward each other, they will overlap to cut completely through a body (such as the flower stem or egg) with a shearing type action. Ignoring, momentarily, the ergonomic and other problems these devices might entail even when utilized for their own respective purposes, they are completely non-analogous to and unsuitable for the specialized purpose of removing circlets of foil from wine bottles.